atlantic europe

The ARC has been slightly delayed for a day due to bad (30 knot+) winds at the start in Gran Canaria.

These unusually windy conditions over the past few days has had us all on edge and has changed the atmosphere slightly from a tropical sailing adventure to an ocean ordeal with people being worried about seasickness and a rough, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous start to a long ocean journey.

We didn’t see much wildlife either, a couple of dolphins on the first afternoon, a few sea birds and a couple of random small squid that we found on deck. We didn’t know how long the squid had been there so we thought it best not to eat them – shame.

Although they have sailed with us from Brighton to Chichester, Lymington and Cherbourg, with our crew still reasonably new to our boat, we thought it would be prudent to spend some time trying out some different sails and familiarising ourselves with certain procedures without having the pressure of having to cover lots of miles in a day.

It might be the miles of long sandy beach, it might be the weather – beautifully warm, but not stifling, it might be the wealth of cocktails on offer, it might be the delicious fish and seafood, it might just be the friendly, well run marina….whatever the highlight, it’s always enjoyable to visit Lagos.

On our first night in town on this visit we popped out for dinner and a few drinks.

We’re currently at anchor in Sines and nearly around the bottom corner of Portugal.

Next stop tomorrow is Lagos on the Algarve which is where we finish this leg of the journey south and I head back to the UK for a week before it’s back to do the next bit across to the Canaries. That’ll be fun as it’s quite different and very offshore!

We are sitting in a peaceful anchorage in the Ría de Muros, the northernmost of the Rías Baixas, just a short distance off a beautiful beach in only a few metres of clear water….the only thing wrong with this picture perfect scenario is that the view of the beach is obscured by a heavy curtain of rain and we are confined to below decks listening to the sound of the rain drumming down on the coach roof

Last time I was in A Coruña (to give it its proper Galician name) I ate something called ‘zamburiñas’ without knowing – apart from them being some sort of seafood thing – what they were…whatever they were I thought they were delicious.
In other parts of Spain, I have come across them in tins – obviously not the same experience.

As the geek already mentioned the Îles de Glénan was our last stop in Brittany. According to the pilot book they are “as close to the Caribbean as you can get in south Brittany…” I’m not sure how much competition there is for that title, but I’m hoping that the water in the Caribbean will be a little warmer than 20°C…

The Îles de Glénan if you don’t know are also home to the renown French sailing school of the same name which: interesting fact no.2 from the pilot book, was founded by two former members of the resistance.

Well, here we are again, just about to head out into the bay of Biscay in November. Weather window looks fair, nothing too extreme on the way, so should be a 3 day crossing. Hopefully arrive in La Coruna Wednesday midnight.

We left Cherbourg Sunday morning first light after travelling up from Malaga Saturday and had some pretty rough seas as a northeasterly gale subsided, but it’s reasonably calm now.

Adrian – the Geek

I guess I'm the geek! I try to make the best use of technology whenever possible and try to keep up to date with the latest tech both on and off the water. I'll be writing reviews, news and stories about the boat, equipment and our sailing.

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Jax – the Girl

Though it may be a life on the ocean wave for me, I don’t see that I need to be unglamorous or forego all nice things. For me it’s about finding a way to incorporate a bit of style in our lives alongside all of the necessary practicality and technology - and to try to keep the geekery under control ;-)

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Where are we?

Click to locate usWe are currently in the Caribbean, having crossed the Atlantic with the ARC in December 2014. We are working our way north during the Caribbean season towards Florida, where we'll start heading up the east coast of the US during the summer. View our satellite trackers and other locator beacons to follow our progress, see where we are and send us SMS messages via satellite.